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Daily Picnics Lift Koko"s Spirits

Posted On: March 12, 2010
Date Taken: September 04, 2005

Photographer: Ron Cohn

Koko likes to eat outside as much as possible (naturally) but unlike most gorillas, she has accumulated some accoutrements from her anthropocentric environment. Notice the picnic blanket, picnic basket and the band of small stuffed animals looking over her shoulder. This simply makes Koko, like every other creature on the planet, a unique individual. Koko even refers to herself (in sign language) as "Fine Animal Person Gorilla" to make this point clear to everyone else.

Her ability to listen and understand (confirmed by her subsequent sign remarks) so much of what"s going on around her (even in remote offices) is uncanny, and should provide researchers with food for decades of thought.